cheating, a brief memory, possibilities

This is what I've heard about the residents of a small hamlet in Ranipura village, district Sheopur, Madhya Pradesh:

38 people claim to have worked under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. They were digging - presumably for little ponds that would help in water harvesting, though they cannot be certain for they are never told these things. They worked for a total of 110 and a 1/2 days - that is, the total man-days of work. Each person worked for two to four days, on an average. On their job cards, the entries say '77 days'. All the cards say 77 days.

The workers were paid according to two or four days of work. The cards say that they were paid for 77 days each. Based on the state's daily wage rate, there has been a dhaandhli of about Rs 1.72 lakhs. Or Rs 1,72930.92, to be precise.

When they realized that they had been cheated, the villagers decided to complain about the panchayat secretary and the sarpanch, who usually deal with the contractor and who had taken all their job cards to be filled.

Supported by the activist who works as a Right to Food fellow in that area, they went to meet the District Magistrate. The DM had given them a date and time and they got up early, cooked for the whole day, and set out on foot.

En route, they were stopped by a panchayat official who tried to dissuade them with offers of liquor. They refused. The official then offered them Rs 1000 in cash. They refused again. They walked and walked all the way to the small railway station to catch a passenger train that would take them to the district headquarters. By the time they got there, they had missed the train.

There were no other trains and they would have missed their appointment, so they caught the bus instead. The fare would have been about half a day's wages. Eventually, through argument, pleading and sheer grit, they got to meet the DM and submit a petition.

But they had to spend the night at the railway station because there was nowhere to stay. They had not come prepared to stay overnight and there was no money either, so they had nothing to eat. The next day, they took the passenger train back.

This was more than three months ago. The DM, I have heard, has not taken any action so far.

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This was about (the year) 2000. I was a small boy then but I remember a little about the time when the forest department people came to empty out our village. We came here, then. The land was wild; forests in the distance; no sign of human habitation for miles.

We stayed under the open sky, sat under trees - young and old and small children. If there was a storm, we would just lie there, hugging the earth. There was no home to hide in. Even our utensils would fly off when the wind was strong and if we ran after our utensils, the clothes would begin to fly off and the little babies would cry.

We walked miles to get water, and because there wasn't enough, we went weeks without bathing. There was nothing to eat. There was a moneylender in the next village who would come by to give us money on interest. That kept us alive.

One day, Kallu's wife who was heavily pregnant, began to complain of the pain. Kallu was helpless; he could not do much. Things went on like this for two-three days. Then, at about midnight, the pain became intense and Kallu's wife told him but he just listened and cursed his helplessness. His wife could not bear the pain any longer and she started screaming. The village women heard and came to her side.

The older women looked at her and decided that this was a complicated case and that the baby could not be birthed here, in the normal way. They asked Kallu to take her to a hospital. The hospital was far off and we wondered what to do. It was decided that we should put her on a charpai (string-bed) and four men would carry her.

We did not have four men available at that time. There were three young men and one adolescent boy. They lifted the charpai and began to walk. On the way, they had to cross a river. It was already about 2 am and pitch dark. Nobody could see a thing. In the light of just one torch, they tried to cross the river. But the young boy lost his footing, and for an instant, the leg of the charpai that he was holding, slipped out of his grasp.

Kallu's wife fell off and landed on her stomach. And she died.

[As told to an activist who was working in a village in Vijaypur block, Sheopur district. The village was displaced during the creation of the Kuno National Park. I've only done a rough translation.]

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What can be done?

Having read the last story, a research scholar had written to ask how he could help... his is not an 'activist bent of mind', he said, but what could he do? This is what I wrote back:

There are some things we can all do. Some of them are larger things which will involve lifestyle and idea/ideology changes. Some are smaller, more specific things. Take a look at the list below and see how many of these things you and your friends can do.

Stay Aware. Don't shut out the truth. And remember that all truths are relative. We all feel poor sometimes, but there's a certain kind of poverty that should just be outlawed. Lobby hard, so that it is.

Never swallow the argument that other people, usually a minority of one kind or another, need to give up something for the greater, common good.

Question 'rights' and 'resources' - who has what; who should have how much of what? If you find yourself in agreement with somebody fighting for their rights over resources, stand up for them.

Whatever your line of work, think of what you can do that will help forge a link to those who are trying to make a difference.

Once displacement (due to forest reserves or dams or industrial purchases of land) has taken place, the most common problem is access to water and jobs. Those of you who are engineers/inventors/software developers/social scientists - can you work out some system of ensuring

- that people have the tools to figure out how low the groundwater table is and its suitability for irrigation and drinking?

- that, even if people are illiterate, they can register complaints about harassment, lack of water, lack of toilets, corrupt local officials, mismanagement of NREGS or PDS cards. Some sort of simple, maybe online mechanism (preferably that is not dependent on electricity supply?). Almost like an electronic form - like the ballot symbols for candidates, something that uses pictures to represent breakdowns. This could serve both the local administration and activists who cannot be in all villages all the time, and need to know what is the most urgent situation, and where.

- that they can approach the courts directly or get in touch with lawyers who work as activists or in a network (read: don't cost much) to get stay orders quickly if and when they are threatened with decisions that will threaten their livelihoods.

Can you train people from this belt - the hunger-affected groups especially - so that they can do other kinds of work and are not entirely dependent on contractors who need them as cheap labour?

If the adults are not ready to be trained (and many cannot afford to take time off from earning their daily bread), can you think of what else they can do with their hands, which will not endanger their health so much - something apart from stone quarries and mining or construction work?

If you cannot do this, then just pay visits to this area - or any other area with similar problems: each state has its own Patalgarh. Take food for the children (include non-perishables, if possible) and soap and picture-books.

Invest in activism, if you cannot be an activist yourself. Often, the villagers will decide to march into the district headquarters or to the capital. (See beginning of this post). Create a small fund and leave your contact details with some activist whose work you've heard of and whom you trust. (Everybody knows at least one such person). Tell them you will dip into the fund for food or make staying arrangements at a dharamshala or rayn-basera for people if there is such a need.

Invest in good research. Invest in people who are researching sound, sustainable development practices, and those who draw on local materials to build infrastructure.

Invest in good journalism. :)

Don't over-eat. Don't over-cook. Don't throw food.

Fight corruption at every level, each step of the way.